Farmers’ awareness programme on scientific rearing of mithun and veterinary health camp was conducted by ICAR- NRC on mithun on February 24, at Tening village of Peren district for disseminating the scientific inputs for improving the traditional husbandry practices of mithun in the farmers’ fields.
Resource persons of the programme were senior scientist Dr M.H. Khan, ACTO Dr Kobu Khate and ACTO from ICAR-NRC on Mithun Dr Kezhavituo Vupru.
In a release, ICAR- NRC on mithun said traditionally mithuns are reared under free range of forest eco-system by the tribal people. With the increasing global warming and forest shrinking, occurrence of disease outbreak in mithun was frequently encountered with high mortality. This is simply because mithun lives in a natural habitat where close monitoring is often not feasible, stated the release.
It said the centre was mandated for the conservation and propagation of mithun and has taken several initiatives for improving health, production and reproduction as well as characterization of the available germ plasm.
Under the efforts taken by ICAR-NRC on mithun during 2016, mithun of Tening village are now regularly visiting the salt lick place and a temporary shed erected in the forest itself. It said this gives an opportunity to the mithun owners to have a better interaction with the animals.
In the awareness programme, mithun herd in the village was vaccinated against foot and mouth disease, deworming besides distribution of materials for fencing, mithun shed, veterinary medicines, school stationeries to the economically poor children etc. The mithuns were also ear tagged for addressing the issue of ownership dispute.